Just look at the law.. They can put up all the signs they want. They are still liable. Ask any attorney that deals with those type suits. If you charge you are liable. If it is free only then can you put up signs that you are parking at your own risk. We still cover our lots with insurance just to be safe.
Get your money for your show not parking that is stupid...

Originally Posted by screamforadream

Slain,

Where? Not in CT! Every freaking parking garage in the city makes it very clear that no vehicle damage, theft of vehicle, or theft of property from vehicle is their liability, and that the owner of the vehicle assumes all risk in parking there, no matter HOW much they charge, if some idiot hits your car on the way out, or steals your GPS out of it, the garage/lot is NOT responsible.

Charging for parking, particularly in this economy, is a bad idea and just adds another reason for people to skip your attraction. Theme parks get away with it because they offer a full day and night of fun for under a hundred bucks and they are a destination that many people plan vacations around. Haunts not so much. A haunted house provides maybe 30+ minutes for $15 to 25. Any haunt that charged me for parking, I would skip on principle alone.

We have a 12 year old sod parking lot that we installed drainage tile under several years ago so rains do not cause problem. Basically 4 rows of cars that are very close to 200 yards long. Have 4 parking lot attendants that I pay $10 an hour and do not charge for parking.

We park in a field that is 4 acres and we have 5 to 8 attendants depending on the night. On busy nights they earn their money. I just don't think charging to park is a good idea. Paying parking attendants is a cost of doing business. If you don't charge your costumers $10.00 to park they may spend $20.00 at your concessions!

Unfortunately we are at the mercy of our landlords. They own the park where our attraction is and they recently decided to charge for parking. Its just $5 per car and so far our sales have not suffered from it.

Scary you are right on!
... Also if you charge you also assume all the liability for their vehicles.

<< That's strange. We DON'T charge for parking, but we also don't tell people WHERE or HOW to park in our lot. I was told once we tell people WHERE to park their cars then we're liable. Our lot is unmarked asphalt between our building and the warehouse next door. Common sense usually tells people where to park and I haven't had any issues. We have MORE of an issue of people parking at the Bingo hall across the street. That guy HATES us and has come over prior to the season and specifically told us he'd have patrons towed...so long story short, charging for parking is cheap to me so we don't do it. I hate being nickeled and dimed everywhere I go. I even hate paying for parking at an amusement park...they KNOW we have no other choices, so to me that's a slap in the face.

Originally Posted by Darkangel

I know when I visited Spookywoods and Woods of Terror in NC they both charged to park there I think it was $5 per car.

DA

Went to Spookywoods last year and didn't have to pay...that's weird. Maybe they only charge on busy nights?? But I DO know they redid their lot last year and it was ATROCIOUS the first weekend when we went. We literally were made to park ridiculously close to the cars next to us and since we were one of the first ones there that night, the rows that filled in behind us were too close to back out. It took a LOT of near-miss attempts to back out (especially in an SUV). I'm sure they cleared it up later in the season, but damn that first weekend.